Looks like Saddam's regime is already starting to unravel...DEBKAfile Exclusive: Tareq Aziz, Taha Ramadan defect
According to an exclusive report reaching DEBKAfile from its military and intelligence sources, top members of the Saddam Hussein regime have begun to desert him. Sources in Kurdistan report that deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz visited Turkey and instead of returning to Baghdad headed into Kurdistan and went into hiding under Kurdish protection. He is said to be under interrogation by American intelligence officers. Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan has not been seen in Baghdad for three days and may too have fled the country.
Both men were elevated to their positions in 1991 after long service to Saddam Hussein as his most trusted lieutenants.
From northern Iraq we hear that hundreds of Iraqi soldiers and officers are streaming to the Turkoman town of Tozkhurmato, discarding their weapons outside the town and turning themselves in.
From the warfront we hear that the Marine column crossing the demilitarized line from Kuwait is moving toward Nassariyah in southern Iraq, its objective being to cross the Euphrates and reach Baghdad in two or three days.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

As always, a must read from Mark Steyn.This one is about Rumsfeld. Europeans (including my family), think this man is a raving lunatic. I think he is great. He speaks directly, frankly and does not care for the niceties that Europeans use as a sophisticated excuse for appeasement. Example:
At one Pentagon briefing on Afghanistan, some showboating reporter noted that human rights groups had objected to the dropping of cluster bombs and demanded to know why the U.S. was using them. "They're being used on frontline al-Qaeda and Taliban troops to try to kill them," replied Rumsfeld. How refreshing. A politician who doesn't beat around the bush. A man who sees who the enemy is and openly says that he will do whatever it takes to destroy terrorists and tyrants.

Why am I ashamed to be a Canadian?Because my country has decided to side with the bankrupt UN as an excuse to not go after Saddam. Because Canada had no qualms about sending troups to Somalia, to Kosovo and other conflicts without even a hint of a UN mandate, and yet uses this excuse to bail out of Iraq. Because our Prime Minister has put partisan politics ahead of loyalty to our greatest ally, to our greatest trading partner, and, let's face it, to the one country which would defend Canada if it were ever to be attacked. After refusing the resignation of his communications director who publicly called Bush "a moron", this man did not even reprimand one of his backbenchers who called Americans bastards. And now, this imbecile pontificates about the lack of a UN mandate to go to war to disarm Iraq. Maybe he is so incompetent that he has failed to notice the 17 resolutions which Iraq has violated, including 1441 which explicitly threatens Iraq with severe consequences if it did not disarm. Iraq hasn't disarmed so the consequences are coming. It is not that complicated. But Chretien is such a moral, intellectual and incompetent failure that he doesn't get it. Blair gets it, the Australian PM gets it. 28 other European governments get it. But Chretien does not. At least, Chirac has a reason to be against the invasion: he is afraid that the Iraqi archives will be shown to the world and that France's duplicity will finally be revealed. Chretien has no such justification. He just does no get it.
A regime change in Canada is way way way overdue.

God bless America.Pejman said it better than I could have but here is what an American thinks of the moral stance that America is taking about Iraq.
Which means that we will have to bear the burden once more. And as will be the case once more, America--in addition to preserving its own security--will rid a portion of the world of a horrible tyrant, will provide food, medicine, relief supplies and the inestimably precious supply of freedom to an oppressed people, and will demand no recompense. I don't need a war to be waged in order to be proud of my country. But it is telling that even in the midst of the cataclysm of human conflict, the majesty and beneficence of American generosity and kindness comes through.
Winston Churchill warned the Nazis to "do [their worst], and we shall do our best." Those are words that America and Americans live by. It should be added, however, that in addition to doing our best when others do their worst, we are at our best when the times are at their worst. We could become vicious along with the vicious times, but in spite of all the fears to the contrary, we have kept our character, our sense of humanity and self-worth, our fundamental goodness and decency as a people, and the sense of honor we have borne throughout our history--a sense of honor that allows Americans to look in a mirror and to tell ourselves truthfully and without fear of being contradicted by an objective posterity that when all is said and done, the world is better off for our presence.
Much better off.
May God bless my country and its heroic and valiant citizens. May those blessings spread soon and speedily to the people of ancient Mesopotamia, for they deserve to be free just as much as we do. And may their liberty not be the end, but be only the beginning of a campaign that states unequivocally that mass murder, fanaticism, and tyranny will no longer be winked and nodded at, but will be pursued to the ends of the earth by those who remember history and its lessons.
No more September Elevenths. No more Halabjas. No more evil and totalitarian clerical regimes. Human beings deserve better than that.
And it is high time that they--we--get it.

We are back....After taking a bit of a detour through our other blog "Rants in Our Pants", we felt that the events in the Middle East are far too compelling to be mixed with other, lighter subjects.
So we will resume posting on the Middle East while posting on our other blog will continue as well. Double duty, double trouble, double the work....arghhhhh!

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

WE'VE MOVED! After nearly one year of writing about the crisis in the MidEast, my father and I have decided to move to a general blog, where we could continue blogging about the MidEast and other things as well. Please come and visit us at Rants In Our Pants. We'd love to have ya!

Monday, December 23, 2002

Greetings from Sunny Florida!

Between work, exams, family and other crazy things in life, we've totally neglected this blog lately. Given that we're in Florida right now, the chances of us having the time or desire to post stuff is slim to none......heading towards none at alarming rates. Anyway, we will, of course, keep a look out for any major developments in the MidEast and will post ASAP if anything should happen. We'll be back in full swing in early January, and we're seriously considering a new and improved format. While we're still committed to blogging about Israel and the regional conflict, we'd like to branch out a bit more. We're hoping this little vacation will get out creative juices flowing so we can come up with some cool stuff in the new year. Suggestions are welcome!! Have a safe, happy, healthy and wealthy holiday and a fantastic new year. We hope to see you all back in 2003!

Evidently, no one turned a hair when David Ahenakew launched his rant against the Jews last Friday. After all, he rants all the time. Officially, he was addressing a native group in Saskatoon on treaty rights and health care, which he did. But he also went on to accuse the Saskatchewan government of the usual lying and cheating, and just about every non-aboriginal person in Canada of racism and bigotry. This is why he is invariably described as "tough talking."

The speech was bad enough, but the worst came later, when a reporter for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix gave him a chance to clarify his remarks. So he did. He said Hitler had the right idea when he "fried" six million Jews.
[...]
Now that the garbage has hit the fan, the native higher-ups have turned tougher on Mr. Ahenakew. Still, you've got to ask yourself: Why don't people who describe themselves as oppressed minorities identify with the most oppressed minority in history? How come so many oppressed minorities are inclined to demonize Jews, instead?
[...]
Well, maybe he forgot he said that. Evidently, his position is that genocide is definitely bad for everybody except the Jews.

Now he's claiming that his comments were "exaggerated," whatever that might mean. And the chief of the FSIN says he wants him to "clarify" his statements, although they seemed pretty clear to me.

Mercifully, there was one person whose instincts correctly rose to the occasion. "This is embarrassing to all First Nations people," said aboriginal lawyer Delia Opekokew on Sunday. "It makes us all look like idiots.":

Monday, December 16, 2002

Controversial comments about Hitler made by the former leader of Canada's most prominent native group will be investigated by the RCMP.

David Ahenakew, a former leader of the Assembly of First Nations, was quoted as saying that Hitler's genocide against Jews and others was an attempt to "clean up the world."

"That's how Hitler came in," he told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. "He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany and Europe. That's why he fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the goddamned world. And look what they're doing. They're killing people in Arab countries."

Clearly this type of thing calls for one of my typical cheap shots - something along the lines of drunkedness, the hideous state of aboriginal reserves in Canada, jealousy, or sucking on the tail pipes of cars, but seeing as I'm getting up in 4.5 hours to write an exam on social deviance (pretty apt eh?), I'll just assume you all know what I would've said anyway.

WeirdnessThe front runners for Time Magazine's 2002 edition of "Man of the Year" are......Ariel Sharon (39%) and Yasser Arafat (30.5%). You can imagine how excited I was to see Condi on the ballot too. It almost makes 12 straight hours at the library (for the 17th day in a row) seem OK......almost.